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and resources they have been effected, from three to four millions of the annual income of the Nation have, by Laws enacted at the three most recent Sessions of Congress, been applied, without intrenching upon the necessities of the Treasury; without adding a dollar to the taxes or debts of the community; without suspending even the steady and regular discharge of the debts contracted in former days, which, within the same 3 years, have been diminished by the amount of nearly 16,000,000 of dollars.

The same observations are, in a great degree, applicable to the Appropriations made for Fortifications upon the Coasts and Harbours of The United States; for the maintenance of the Military Academy at West Point; and for the various objects under the superintendence of the Department of the Navy. The Report of the Secretary of the Navy, and those from the subordinate branches of both the Military Departments, exhibit to Congress, in minute detail, the present condition of the public establishments dependent upon them; the execution of the Acts of Congress relating to them, and the views of the Officers engaged in the several branches of the service concerning the improvements which may tend to their perfection. The fortification of the Coasts, and the gradual increase and improvement of the Navy, are parts of a great system of National defence, which has been upwards of ten years in progress, and which, for a series of years to come, will continue to claim the constant and perservering protection and superintendence of the Legislative Authority. Among the measures which have emanated from these principles, the Act of the last Session of Congress for the gradual improvement of the Navy holds a conspicuous place. The collection of timber for the future construction of Vessels of War; the preservation and reproduction of the species of timber peculiarly adapted to that purpose; the construction of Dry Docks for the use of the Navy; the erection of a Marine Railway for the repair of the publick Ships; and the improvement of the Navy Yards for the preservation of the publick property deposited in them; have all received from the Executive the attention required by that Act; and will continue to receive it, steadily proceeding towards the execution of all its purposes. The establishment of a Naval Academy, furnishing the means of theoretic instruction to the youths who devote their lives to the service of their Country upon the Ocean, still solicits the sanction of the Legislature. Practical seamanship and the art of Navigation, may be acquired upon the cruises of the Squadrons, which, from time to time, are dispatched to distant Seas; but a competent knowledge even of the art of Ship building; the higher Mathematics and Astronomy; the literature which can place our Officers on a level of polished education with the Officers of other Maritime Nations; the knowledge of the Laws, Municipal and National, which, in their Intercourse with Foreign States and their Governments, are continually called into op

eration; and above all, that acquaintance with the principles of honor and justice, with the higher obligations of morals, and of general laws, human and divine, which constitute the great distinction between the warrior patriot, and the licensed robber and pirate; these can be systematically taught and eminently acquired, only in a permanent School, stationed upon the shore, and provided with the Teachers, the Instruments, and the Books, conversant with and adapted to the communica tion of the principles of these respective sciences to the youthful and enquiring mind.

The Report from the Post Master General exhibits the condition of that Department, as highly satisfactory for the present, and still more promising for the future. Its Receipts for the Year ending the 1st of July last amounted to 1,473,551 dollars, and exceeded its Expenditures by upwards of 100,000 dollars. It cannot be an over-sanguine estimate to predict that in less than 10 years, of which one half have elapsed, the receipts will have been more than doubled. In the mean time, a reduced expenditure upon established Routes has kept pace with increased facilities of public accommodation, and additional services have been obtained at reduced rates of compensation. Within the last year the transportation of the Mail in stages has been greatly augmented. The number of Post Offices has been increased to 7,000; and it may be anticipated that while the facilities of intercourse between Fellow-citizens in person or by correspondence, will soon be carried to the door of every villager in the Union, a yearly surplus of Revenue will accrue, which may be applied as the wisdom of Congress, under the exercise of their Constitutional Powers, may devise, for the further establishment and improvement of the public Roads, or by adding still further to the facilities in the transportation of the Mails. Of the indications of the prosperous condition of our Country, none can be more pleasing than those presented by the multiplying relations of per sonal and intimate intercourse between the Citizens of the Union dwell. ing at the remotest distances from each other.

Among the subjects which have heretofore occupied the earnest solicitude and attention of Congress, is the management and disposal of that portion of the property of the Nation which consists of the Publick Lands. The acquisition of them, made at the expense of the whole Union, not only in treasure but in blood, marks a right of property in them equally extensive. By the Report and Statements from the General Land Office now communicated, it appears that under the present Government of The United States a sum little short of 33,000,000 of dollars has been paid from the common Treasury, for that portion of this property which has been purchased from France and Spain, and for the extinction of the aboriginal titles. The amount of lands acquired is near 260,000,000 of acres, of which, on the 1st of January, 1826, about 139,000,000 of acres had been surveyed, and little more

than 19,000,000 of acres had been sold. The amount paid into the Treasury by the purchasers of the lands sold is not yet equal to the sums paid for the whole, but leaves a small balance to be refunded; the proceeds of the sales of the lands have long been pledged to the creditors of the Nation; a pledge from which we have reason to hope that they will in a very few years be redeemed. The system upon which this great National interest has been managed, was the result of long, anxious, and persevering deliberation; matured and modified by the progress of our population, and the lessons of experience: it has been hitherto eminently successful; more than nine-tenths of the lands still remain the common property of the Union, the appropriation and disposal of which are sacred trusts in the hands of Congress. Of the lands sold, a considerable part were conveyed under extended credits, which, in the vicissitudes and fluctuations in the value of lands, and of their produce, became oppressively burdensome to the purchasers. It can never be the interest or the policy of the Nation to wring from its own Citizens the reasonable profits of their industry and enterprise, by holding them to the rigorous import of disastrous engagements. In March, 1821, a debt of 22,000,000 of dollars, due by purchasers of public lands, had accumulated, which they were unable to pay. An Act of Congress, of the 2d of March, 1821, came to their relief, and has been succeeded by others, the latest being the Act of the 4th May, 1826, the indulgent provisions of which expired on the 4th of July last. The effect of these laws has been to reduce the debt from the purchasers, to a remaining balance of about 4,300,000 dollars due; more than three-fifths of which are for lands within the State of Alabama. I recommend to Congress the revival and continuance for a further term, of the beneficent accommodations to the public debtors, of that statute; and submit to their consideration, in the same spirit of equity, the remission, under proper discriminations, of the forfeitures of partial payments on account of purchases of the public lands, so far as to allow of their application to other payments.

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There are various other subjects of deep interest to the whole Union, which have heretofore been recommended to the consideration >of Congress, as well by my Predecessors as, under the impression of the duties devolving upon me, by myself. Among these are the debt rather of justice than gratitude to the surviving warriors of the Revolutionary War; the extension of the Judicial Administration of the Federal Government, to those extensive and important members of the Union, which, having risen into existence since the organization of the present Judiciary Establishment, now constitute at least one-third of its territory, power, and population; the formation of a more effective and uniform system for the Government of the Militia, and the amelioration, in some form or modification, of the diversified and often oppressive Codes relating to Insolvency. Amidst the multiplicity of

topics of great National concernment which may recommend themselves to the calm and patriotic deliberations of the Legislature, it may suffice to say, that on these and all other measures which may receive their sanction, my hearty co-operation will be given, conformably to the duties enjoined upon me, and under the sense of all the obligations prescribed by the Constitution. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

Washington, December 4, 1827.

SPEECH of the King of Bavaria, on the Opening of the Session of the States.-17th November, 1827.

Mes chers et fidèles Etats du Royaume,

GRACES inexprimables soient rendues à celui auquel nous devons tant d'excellentes Institutions, à celui qui nous a donné la Constitution, et qui étoit pour nous tous le plus tendre des Pères! Jamais peut-être le Trône ne ressentira les battemens d'un cœur si noble et si plein d'amour.

Il seroit superflu sans doute de vous dire quelles sont mes dispositions, de protester de mon attachement aux libertés légales, aux droits du Trône, à cette Constitution protectrice de tous; de vous répéter que je regarde la Religion comme la base la plus essentielle, et que je saurai la maintenir dans tout ce qui lui appartient.

Notre Constitution, malgré tous ses avantages, n'est pas exempte de défauts; l'expérience peut seule démontrer ce que les théories ne peuvent enseigner. Mais notre Constitution elle-même l'a prévu; elle nous ouvre avec sagesse la route des améliorations.

Les Sessions précédentes ont déjà fait beaucoup de bien; mais il nous reste beaucoup à faire.

Le défaut de Conseils Provinciaux est très préjudiciable.

Pour rendre l'Administration Publique et celle de la justice moins coûteuse, plus expéditive et moins surchargée d'écritures, des changemens sont indispensables.

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Le prompt établissement d'un bon système définitif des contributions est vivement desiré; la justice le réclame, elle veut une Loi qui assure d'une manière plus exacte l'assiette et la répartition de l'impôt ; ce besoin est celui des contribuables, mais non des caisses de l'Etat, car non seulement le déficit du service courant est comblé, mais encore la construction d'une grande Place Forte Nationale est entreprise. La Bavière en possédoit une jusqu'au commencement de ce siècle.

L'institut d'Amortissement de la Dette Publique et des Pensions suit la marche régulière: les Finances sont en bon ordre.

Le nouveau Tarif des Douanes et la Loi sur la culture des terres

ont pour but de soulager le commerce et l'agriculture, et d'ouvrir de nouvelles sources à l'industrie.

J'ai l'espoir qu'un Traité avec la Couronne de Wurtembourg va bientôt reporter la vie et le mouvement vers cette Frontière.

Grâce aux généreuses dispositions de la dernière Assemblée Législative, des améliorations importantes ont eu lieu dans plusieurs branches de l'agriculture et de l'industrie manufacturière.

Sur ces objets et sur d'autres non moins importans, mes Ministres sont chargés de soumettre à vos délibérations et à votre approbation divers Projets de Loi, de même que pour une nouvelle forme de Procédure Judiciaire, basée sur la publicité des débats et sur la plaidoirie orale, et enfin pour un Code Pénal, commun à tous mes Sujets.

Je mets toute ma confiance dans les lumières de mes chers et fidèles Etats du Royaume; je me repose sur leur bonne volonté. Loin de nous tout intérêt personnel; notre seul but est la Bavière, le bien de cette Bavière, objet de mon amour le plus profond.

N'oublions pas cependant que toute bénédiction vient de Dieu.

REPORT of the Minister of Finance to the President of Mexico.-10th January, 1827.

(Abstract.)

(Translation.)

YOUR Excellency, always desirous to promote the best interests of the Republick, your own honour, and that of your Ministers, was pleased to require from me, on the 1st of the present month, a detailed account of the improvements effected in the different branches of the publick Revenue during my Administration.

I undertake this task with pleasure, both because it is one which your Excellency has been pleased to assign to me, and because it has always been my opinion that, upon so important a subject, the Nation should judge only by the knowledge of facts.

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Nor will this even be sufficient, unless due attention be paid to the extraordinary circumstances under which your Excellency assumed the reins of Government, at a moment when the entire political existence of Anahuac was renewed, and the system, both of Government and of Finance, entirely changed: publick opinion pronounced itself against the abuses of the preceding Ages: the Congress decreed a complete regeneration: it gave a new form to old practices, and introduced others, till then unknown.

In August 1824, the great metamorphoses commenced. Fate placed me at the head of the Ministry, at the moment when the change was about to be made; when the adoption of the Federal System, and the extinction of the National Chests, the Intendencies, the Di

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